The present invention broadly relates to fluid mixing devices, and, in particular, concerns a new and improved construction of a hot and cold water mixing device, sometimes also referred to in the art as a mixing battery, plumbing mixing fixture or mixing tap. In the description to follow the fluid mixing arrangement of this invention will generally simply be referred to as a mixing device.
Generally speaking, the mixing device of the present development is of the type comprising a rotary slide or slide member which controls in an opposing sense or inversely the inflow of the hot and cold water. This mixing device is provided with a device or means in order to suppress or prevent the flow of water through the rotary slide or slide member.
Prior art constructions of mixing devices or mixing batteries of the aforementioned type, specially so-called single lever-mixing devices or mixing batteries, for instance as disclosed in Swiss Pat. No. 651,119, granted Aug. 30, 1985 or Swiss Pat. No. 654,088, granted Jan. 31, 1986, are designed such that it is possible to place the mixing device in a closed position or state by accomplishing a translatory displacement of the rotary slide with respect to the inlets and/or the outlet of the mixing valve. Due to such translatory displacement of the rotary slide, the openings or ports in the rotary slide no longer flow communicate or register with the inlets or the outlet, as the case may be. This construction, wherein the rotary slide has the form of a disk or plate, preferably formed of a hard material such as ceramic, which sealingly bears at a counter disk having two inlet openings and one outlet opening, has proven itself in practice, above all because the rotary slide cannot be overloaded in its closed position. However, it is to be observed that this advantageous construction is achieved at the expense of a relatively complicated and cumbersome structural design.
First of all, the rotary slide, independent of its position, always must cleanly sealingly bear at the counter disk. That result only then can be achieved if the rotary slide is very accurately machined so as to be quite flat or planar and if it is always pressed with a certain contact or pressing force against the counter disk. It is for these reasons that such construction is also construed to be relatively cumbersome or complicated. Additionally, the single operating lever must be rotatable or pivotable about two pivot axes which are disposed or postured approximately at right angles to one another. The rotation of the operating lever about the axis of the mixing device or mixing battery generally determines the relative rotational position of the rotary slide in relation to the inlets leading to the mixing device and thus the mixing ratio of the mixed hot and cold water which effluxes from the outlet. On the other hand, the degree of pivoting of the operating lever about the pivot axis disposed perpendicular to the axis of the mixing device governs the throughflow quantity, that is to say, the degree of opening of the hot and cold water mixing device.
It is to be recognized that there exist numerous fields of application where there is not required at all regulation of the throughflow quantity of the hot and cold water. Quite to the contrary, what is required is only the regulatability of the mixing ratio of the hot and cold water and easy operability of the mixing device, in other words it should be user-friendly